


Just A Little Hiccough

by fallofthereichenbach



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Hiccoughs?, M/M, Marauders' Era, Studying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 16:50:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11361567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallofthereichenbach/pseuds/fallofthereichenbach
Summary: In which hiccoughs inadvertently solve all problems!





	Just A Little Hiccough

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!!

The log fire crackled, spitting warm sparks up into the air. Maybe, Sirius thought, it sympathised with them. Maybe it was showing solidarity at the horrors that they were having to endure.

Charms homework. At 2am. On the least comfy sofa of the Gryffindor Common Room.

Sirius was living in a nightmare. A long, boring nightmare.

Or at least it might have been boring, had Sirius been alone. Instead he was blessed with the company of a tired and irritable Remus Lupin, who was currently scribbling furiously with his eyebrows so scrunched together that his glasses kept being pushed down his nose. Needless to say that Remus wasn't exactly fun company right now; but it was still better than being alone.

Sirius reckoned it was about time he reminded his friend of his presence.

"Moony," Sirius started off in a low whine, "Remind me why we're here and not upstairs putting eggs in Prongs' shoes?"

"Because it's due tomorrow, and we would have had it done last night except you insisted on putting flour in his shoes."

"Jeez, Lupin, when did you become such a nerd?"

"When you started to claim anyone who bothers to try at anything is a 'nerd'."

"Touché."

Remus sighed and picked up his quill, which he had momentarily abandoned in favour of running a hand through his hair. Moony had nice hair, Sirius had to admit (though it wasn't a patch on his own). It was a kind of light brown with loose curls, getting too long around the ears. It was soft as well - Sirius was all too familiar with the exact texture, due to the sheer number of times he'd gently tug it and jokingly beg Moony to get a haircut.

Sirius would never admit it to his face, but if Remus did get a haircut then he genuinely thought he might cry. It was just so pretty, Remus' hair. It was surely filled the entire body of Hogwarts with envy and admiration.

To be honest, Sirius could wax poetical for hours about the beauty of Moony's hair - and he had, on more than one occasion. In fact, if Remus was in the exact right mood (sleepy and peaceful) he'd just sit there with his eyes closed and let Sirius pet his hair as softly as possible. Sirius always held his breath; it felt like such a delicate moment, and he was desperate not to shatter it. He noticed, with a stab of pride, that Moony rarely let anyone else touch even a single curl.

"Are you going to actually start your essay, Pads? This is getting ridiculous, I did actually want to get some sleep tonight!"

Sirius jolted slightly out from inside his own mind, and waved a hand airily.

"Relax, relax. It'll get done."

"If you think I'm going to do it for you-"

"Of course I wouldn't expect that, Moony dearest." Sirius put on his fakest, smarmiest, sad voice and continued, "I just have some difficulty concentrating... After McGonagall said she didn't want to marry me... And Prongs started abandoning me for Evans... And my family disowned me..."

"Alright!" Remus held up a hand; Sirius knew he wasn't angry, just very annoyed and desperate to finish the essay. Which made it all the more fun.

"I know it's alright, Re, it's just so hard for me..." Sirius stuck out his lower lip to disguise the smile forming there. Remus wasn't even close to a grin.

"Look, mate, if you're not going to write this thing then can you leave me in peace? I'm so tired, I want to sleep."

The boy did look tired, and Sirius knew he wasn't completely... Serious about asking him to leave. But tired Remus was all too similar to grumpy Remus, and neither seemed particularly fond of Sirius or his charms. However, both Remus' (and Remus in general) did look good with the warm, flickering lighting on his skin. The shadows of the early morning emphasised his cheekbones (which were already sharp enough to cut a unicorn's horn clean off), and the light cast by the fire and the moon light made him look... radiant. Almost other-worldly. And when he pushed the glasses up his nose with one finger like he didn't even notice he was doing it? Damn.

The bags under his eyes were also noticeable, and Sirius felt a jolt of worry for his friend. 

"So sleep. C'mon, Moons, let's go to bed!" Sirius grabbed Remus' hands, and Remus responded by attempting to swat Sirius away; the resulting brief scuffle ended in a loose elbow sending Sirius' pot of ink flying. It splattered Remus' essay in seconds.

"Shit! Merlin's beard, look what you've done! Why couldn't it have landed on your parchment, it's basically blank!" Remus had sprung to his feet, and was hurriedly trying to Banish the ink before it could spread too much.

"Sorry Moony," Sirius said meekly with his head bowed.

Remus just shook his head with pursed lips, and set about trying to repair the damage on his essay. As he went to sit back down, the best possible sound escaped his mouth; a disgustingly adorable squeaky little thing.

It was like Remus knew exactly what he was in for before it could happen; he looked directly at Sirius, and then abandoned his inky essay to bury his head in his hands.

"Did you just hiccough?" Sirius asked incredulously. 

"No."

"Yes you did! You hiccoughed!"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes! Oh, that's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Did you hear it? It was so cute! Do it again!"

"... I can't do it on command-"

"So you admit you did do it?"

"No!"

"This is the best day of my life. I will treasure this memory forever. You, all lovely and grumpy, trying to be all angry at me; then, you hiccough. Moony, you've outdone yourself."

Remus groaned - or at least he tried to. A pesky hiccough interrupted him. Sirius dissolved into the most obnoxious giggles he could manage.

"Stop laughing! Honestly, this really isn't doing very much good for my confidence in my masculinity."

"But what is masculinity? A social construct, Moons, you know that. Embrace the hiccoughs. They're ridiculously cute."

"Stop," Remus shook his head, making those curls of his bounce. He made as if to start writing again, having saved most of the essay after the ink disaster; however, mid-word, he jumped suddenly as another hiccough snuck up on him.

"Screw this," he threw down his quill for the umpteenth time, "How can I be expected to write if I keep getting interrupted every couple of seconds?"

"Is there any kind of spell for hiccoughs?"

"I bet there is, but of course neither of us know it when we need it."

"Looks like you're stuck like this, Re. Sorry."

Remus looked vaguely out of the window. He was thinking, searching for something inside his head. His mouth was slightly open, and he was sat perfectly; Sirius wished he had one of those Muggle devices for capturing images. 

Was it weird, him thinking about taking 'photos' of Moony? No, they were friends. Close friends, sure, of course. But no different from him and Prongs, or him and Wormtail.

A surprisingly suggestive sigh from Moony gave Sirius a sudden pull back to reality.

"What?"

"My mum used to talk about a whole bunch of Muggle cures for hiccoughs, I was trying to remember them."

"And?"

"And I can remember one of them."

"What is it?"

Remus looked reluctant to share.

"Pads, I don't have the energy for you to take this too far. But... I need you to scare me."

"To scare you?" Sirius' voice filled with glee, which seemed to worry his friend.

"Shock me a bit, I mean. Nothing major. It's meant to get rid of the hiccoughs."

"But they're so lovely, so adorable!" Sirius protested, "I don't want them to leave!"

A glare and two angry hiccoughs were sent his way as a response.

"Okay, okay. What do you want me to do?"

"If I tell you what to do, it wouldn't be a surprise to me then would it?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Fine... Uh, close your eyes."

If he was being honest with himself, Sirius didn't know what Remus expected him to do. But it was easier to surprise someone if they couldn't see what was coming, so he just decided to go for it. Shockingly, after a small amount of hesitation, Moony agreed to go with it too and his eyes flickered closed.

Remus had very long eyelashes. Sirius leaned towards him slightly, thinking, and suddenly he had a close-up view of his face and could have counted every freckle on it. Remus' skin seemed soft and smooth, like perfect porcelain.

If people found out Sirius Black was comparing a guy's skin to porcelain they'd surely have a field day, but Sirius would stand by that statement no matter what. His Moony was perfect.

Well, his Moony wasn't exactly 'his' Moony. You can't own a person, thank Merlin. But the selfish part of a Sirius wanted to stake his claim, wanted everyone to know that Moony was his friend, wanted people to understand that maybe (in some strange, minute way) Moony was his.

Perhaps that's why he did it.

Remus was just sat there, almost peaceful, eyes closed obediently. He was breathing deeply, and Sirius wondered if he was doing those calming breathing exercises that Madam Pomfrey had shown him.

And then Sirius leaned in further; he had already been fairly close, but now he could feel the soft wave of Moony's breath on his lips. The other boy, sensing his presence there, shifted slightly, and his breathing got much faster.

Before he had time to reconsider, Sirius pressed their lips together. They stayed connected for a single heartbeat, then he fought every instinct telling him to continue softly and slowly, and Sirius pulled back.

As soon as he moved away he missed the heat of Remus' body, though they had been close for so brief a time, and it felt like something had been ripped away from him.

In contrast, Remus' eyes slowly fluttered open, eyelashes waving. His gaze immediately fell on Sirius, who had never thought his heart could handle beating this fast.

Had he made a terrible mistake? Was his friend about to run out of the door and tell everyone what had happened? 

"Were you sufficiently shocked?" All joking and comfort had been sucked from Sirius' voice, leaving him an awkward shell of seriousness. This just didn't seem like the sort of thing you could joke about. It was more than that, though judging from the mutual look of apprehension they shared they both seemed to want it to be less.

"Uh, I don't know, I haven't hiccoughed yet."

"We should probably wait and see then, I guess."

"Yeah."

They sat avoiding eye contact for a painful minute before Remus took the leap and broke the silence.

"Sirius?"

"Remus?"

"Are you... You know?" Remus seemed to struggle with his words, and given the context of the situation that could only mean one thing. Sirius might have played dumb, made him ask it, but now he took pity on him.

"You're going to ask if I'm gay, aren't you?"

"Um. Yes. If that's okay?"

"Yeah, no, it's fine," Sirius was now the one having to force the words out, "I don't entirely know to be honest with you, Moons. The world's a big place, filled with nice-looking people. I just don't know."

"That's fair enough, Pads, that's completely okay."

"I know it is," he tried to grin, and remembered having a similar but very different conversation with his brother once upon a time, "If you don't mind me asking, are you gay?"

"Er... I think I might be? I've tried to deny it for a while, but... Yeah?"

"Is it all down to me, your gay awakening?"

"At least a little bit," Remus said, awkwardly elusive, and Sirius would be lying if he tried to deny his heart skipping a beat.

"Great. Listen, Re, whatever I am... I think I must at least a bit gay."

"You reckon?"

"I think so."

"Why?"

Of course. Of course. Of course Remus was going to make him publicly announce it. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Because I've kissed a fair few people in my time, not to brag or anything. But that two-second peck was the best one I've ever had. Though, to be fair, I've kissed a couple of guys who weren't you and trust me you beat them all by a long shot. So maybe I'm not gay so much as... Remus-sexual."

"If you ever use that term again, Sirius, I will murder you."

"Is that a promise?"

"Yep."

"And would you potentially label yourself as Sirius-sexual?"

A slight blush flared up on Remus' cheeks, and Sirius nearly died.

"It's a possibility," Remus was saying, choosing his words carefully, and Sirius shook his head. He had to put a stop to this awkwardness.

"That's it! This isn't how Remus Lupin and Sirius Black do things. Okay? So, Remus, I've decided that I like you a lot. Would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me next weekend, as a date of some kind?"

Spelling things out so obviously felt ridiculous, but it was worth it to see the stupid smile that bloomed on Moony's face.

"Yes, I would like that."

"Good."

Remus drew himself up to his full height, and held his head up high - clearly imitating Sirius.

"Sirius Black, would you like to kiss some more and worry about the Charms essay immediately after?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Remus didn't hiccough once more that night.

**Author's Note:**

> This was kind of rushed, but I liked the idea and this was the only time I could really spend writing it so here we go!


End file.
